Chapter Fourteen. Mighty Mice

Mighty Mice

He could have been in one of his stories. Explosions everywhere. First at the Peninsula on the morning after Jeninqua (had he spent the night with her?). Then as fireworks at a festival with the Asian people who had named the Year--Snake, who were parading with snake-like dragons. Now with six Kung Fu villains dressed in assassins black and standing in the ready-to-kill attack position.























To cap it off, music arrived, from an unknown source. And what music was it that Derby heard as if from heavenly loud speakers?



But he found there was no easy way to "write" himself out of danger on this one. Faster than he could think, let alone find a computer, he watched Bai Ling rush to spin the Hub, the roulette-like wheel with the black and white marbles on it. She moved with the speed and precise agility of a seasoned martial artist. In one swift movement she flew to a cabinet after her swing had started the mighty wheel, and picked up a dress. She yelled, "It's Jade, protect your groin area. Their aim is deadly."

Bai Ling had flung the wheel with so much power that the velocity was too great to contain the marbles which shot like two rockets, one toward her and one toward Umpa. Within that fraction of a second, Umpa had managed to secure a set of elastic trousers and he was holding them open.

"Hey," Derby thought to himself, "those look like the stretch type of pants that Fredalnte had worn," which  were like no other clothing he had ever seen. The only description he could give them were Super Hero action pants.  They resembled what runners or athletes would wear in the USA, except with the protection of fortified leather.

As the black and white missiles neared their targets (the open dress in Bai Ling's hands and the action pants in Umpa's), Derby and Opie were amazed to recognize the projectiles not as marbles but once again as living mice--Trevor and Jeninqua. As the mice flew into the clothing held by Umpa and Bai Ling, they changed again.

Who or what it was that landed, clothed in the dainty black dress with small shoulder straps and in the white leather-like action pants were the original Jeninqua and a strikingly handsome hispanic man with lustrous black hair and mysterious dark eyes, so brown they seemed black.

Jeninqua, Trevor, Bai Ling and Umpa were tumbling and chopping and slicing the air with their razor blade like limbs. Arms, legs, and their whole bodies seemed like fierce weapons. In spite of all the gymnastics of the good guys, Opie was trembling inside a small cabinet he managed to squeeze into. Derby faired less well. A heavy, spiked, miniature cannonball had been catapulted by a sling from one of the assassins and had hit Derby between the legs with such a crushing force that it threw him up against the wall.

As if one of the other assassins had been waiting for him to be slammed into that position, Derby felt the noose of a synthetic rope grip his neck and drag him out the door. As he was pulled down the stairs by a rope with such violent and chaotic force, he agonized with each bump and flip of his body on the hard metal structure of the stairwell.

One eye had been badly cut and his right arm felt broken. His nose was bleeding and he still suffered excruciating pain from the blow of the spherical weapon. As he was being stuffed into a vehicle on street level he heard scuffling outside the car. While he was clipped and strapped into the back seat, the other back car door opened and a bloody Jeninqua was thrown in beside him.

She was wounded and barely able to hold her head up. She murmered, "Jade fighters are ruthless. We'll be dead soon." And then she was silenced by a black gloved fist of one of the Ninjas. The quiet purr and sleek black body of the Mercedes limo was respected by the crowd, which yielded and parted to let it speed away.